A typical checkout counter (ref. FIG. 1) in use in retail stores includes a loading area, a registration area and a packing area. The loading area may be provided with conveyor belts which convey goods from the loading are and into the registration area. At the registration areas goods are traditionally registered by a cashier. The registration process may include the use of automatic scanning equipments such as bar code readers operated by the cashier. The next zone is the packing area; goods are either conveyed or manually fed from the registration area to the packing area.
Customers are often waiting for the cashier to register purchased items, hand out bags, handle additional sales and accept payments.
Recently self service checkout counters have been introduced. Their layout and design usually resembles that of the traditional checkout counter shown in FIG. 1. However the customer is then exchanged with the cashier and a payment zone/area is added. The customer then loads the goods into the loading area or directly into the registration area where the goods are registered. After all goods have been registered the customer swipes a debit card or credit card in a card reader thereby finishing the transaction process between the goods provider and himself.
A problem with a complete self service system is among others that the customer often needs help to understand the system if anything irregular happens he needs to get in contact with a cashier or service staff from the retailer. Also some kind of control may be necessary so as to prevent erroneous registrations or to prevent deliberate fraud.
It is known a check out device from U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,199 A the check out device includes a first and second scanning lanes set in parallel with each other, each for reading an article code affixed to an article which is moved from an upstream side to a down stream side in a corresponding scanning lane.
Moreover it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,137 B1 a checkout terminal which provides self service registration of goods as well as operator registration of goods by reconfiguring the checkout terminal between the two modes, i.e. self service and operator driven.
US 2009/0090584 A1 discloses a solution for providing item bagging advisements to baggers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,582 disclose a checkout station which allows a single cashier to assist multiple customers simultaneously.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the systems indicated above.